Sue the T-Rex

Multi-touch interactive puzzle

The slick 3D interactions of the Sue T-Rex Skeleton Puzzle installation were recently unveiled at The Field Museum in Chicago, USA. Built by interactive agency Bluecadet, Away3D 4.0 Beta was used to implement the full tyrannosaurus rex render in the background of the installation, as well as the “explore” view in each bubble.

Revealing a bit more of the interaction setup and 3D integration process, developer on the project Stacey Wiley explains:

The background dinosaur is loaded from a single .3ds file split into bone groupings. Users can rotate the dinosaur at any time and images of bone groups can be dragged onto the dinosaur, glowing when they are close to the correct spot. When the user releases an image in a correct spot, the corresponding bone group within the .3ds file is activated with color. Each bone group bubble has the option to explore the bone further. If you enter this view, the .3ds file of the bone group is shown with drag rotate and pinch zoom controls, allowing the user to explore the details of each bone group. The multitouch interaction uses the GestureWorks API and is displayed on an Ideum 65” Presenter screen.